Help Desk Staffing Models: "A Simple Analysis That Can Save You Money"
Methodology for Optimizing Your Help Desk Staffing
If you want to strike the balance between having sufficient staffing to react as needed and doing so economically, this free white paper is for you. Industry studies indicate that 80% of a typical help desk budget is salary, so staffing appropriately has a major impact on the bottom line.
The common Erlang formulas from queuing theory fall short because of the wide diversity of help desk entry points (call, fax, email, web, walk-ins, and pages).
Using the detailed formulas and methodology presented in this paper, you will be able to calculate the relationship between staffing levels and customer support levels. First, the paper looks at call center flow models to see how the organizational structure affects costs and program performance. Secondly, call volume, time to process a call, and time to resolve a call are used to determine the average number of staff required for a given call volume (time required to process the calls in the help desk tracking software application and time required to resolve the calls). A 70% utilization rate is a good starting point, since the inflow of random calls requires some slack capacity.
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Introduction
Call Flow Design - Understanding the Different Strategies
- Gate Keeper Model
- Call Sorting Model
- Tiered Structure: Specialist Model
- Tiered Structure: Generalist Model
Financial Impact of the Various Models
How Many Help Desk Staff Are Required For Your Call Volume?
- Determining Direct Labor Requirements
- Determining the Number of Potential Direct Labor Hours Available
- Utilization Rate
- Sample Formulas
Appendix A: Cost Calculations for Typical Call Flow Support Models
Appendix B: Gross Staffing Level Calculation Worksheet
See https://www.givainc.com/wp/it-help-desk-software-cloud-whitepapers.cfm to access white paper.